Solitude Quotes

But the truth was that he died from solitude, the enemy known but to few on this Earth, and whom only the simplest of us are fit to withstand. The brilliant Costaguanaro of the boulevards had died from solitude and want of faith in himself and others.

Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (on the death of Decoud)

Solitude vivifies isolation kills.

Joseph Roux

The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship.

Sir Francis Bacon

One can acquire everything in solitude - Except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness, the independence of solitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance (essay)

Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone all leave it alone.

Thomas De Quincey

To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions.

Deepak Chopra

Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.

Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Only in solitude do we find ourselves and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude.

Miguel de Unanimo

Cultivate solitude and quiet and a few sincere friends, rather than mob merriment, noise and thousands of nodding acquaintances.

William Powell

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.

Harold Bloom, O Magazine, April 2003